Product Reliability

Product reliability testing can help to predict future behavior during the complete life cycle of the product, component or material under test. In combination with the measurement of relevant parameters and the use of appropriate analytical methods, it is also possible to identify failure modes.

Outdoor and industrial environmental testing simulates different conditions of contact with sand, dust, rain, water, chemicals, exposure to solar and UV radiation, and potential corrosion by liquids or gases.

In cases where environmental reliability testing leads to unacceptable degradation or failure, identification of the root cause can enable design or material changes in order achieve the desired lifetime or performance.

Reliability testing and verification of your product is only useful if it is based on good lifetime data analysis. The correlation between an accelerated reliability test and the real lifetime of the product is very important. Prior to designing a reliability test plan, it is important (and necessary) to address the following questions:

Which types of test(s) are relevant for my product?

How long do I need to test for?

What stress level should be used during the reliability test itself?

What are the Pass/Fail criteria?

The data obtained during (and after) the reliability test can be transferred into various software packages for analysis and further interpretation. The test results can be extrapolated into predicted remaining lifetime of the product.

If you need a quick statistical analysis, or development of a full reliability test program or something in between, then we can help you. Our lab equipment, staffing and consulting for test plan design can be fully customized to meet your specific needs.

HALT is an accelerated product reliability test method focused on finding design or component weaknesses in products. It helps to shorten the product development process and failures can be avoided in advance, before they become expensive field issues. With HALT a product is subject to a series of overstresses to accelerate fatigue in the parts, i.e. the samples are tested outside of the normal operating specifications. It is a test to the point of failure.

MEOST is used to prove the robustness of your product before it goes to the market. It is a test method that stresses the product as far as possible beyond the design specification, but within the known destructive limits (defined with a HALT test). A combination of stresses is applied to create interactions that can lead to product failures. MEOST makes use of environmental stresses in combination with dynamic electrical in- and output parameters (input voltage, frequency, mains-dips, output current/load).